Talkin' GW, Talkin' 6th Edition, Part Two- Evolution

Hey folks, SinSynn here.

In Part One, we covered GW's history, and we know that they'll be releasing 6th Edition into a very crowded marketplace, so now it's time to think about the future.
What will 40k 6th Edition bring, and where is GW going?

*Lemme grab my crystal ball*

I think the biggest thing to remember is this- there's a LOT of 40k Armies out there. I myself own not one, but two 40k armies (Tyranids and Tau...no laughter, please), and like many I've got a ton of money invested in 40k minis.
Yes, as a Xenos-only type of 40k gamer, I have been frustrated with the way GW has managed 40k over the last few years. Since the release of the infamous Grey Knight Codex, I have fallen away from the game that introduced me to the joys of our hobby, and my lil' alien troopies, along with their tanks and transports, are taking up entirely too much room in the back of my bedroom closet.
I know I'm not alone- at the very least, I'm joined by the other members of my gaming club, who took up Flames of War. I wasn't quite the last holdout (our resident GK player was, naturally), and in truth I lobbied for HoMachine, Malifaux and Infinity and NOT Flames of War.
Such is life, huh?

The FLGS where I game is no longer hosting either Warhammer Fantasy or 40k Tournaments, since only one person showed up for the last Fantasy event, and two for the last 40k event. Not for nuthin,' but we have to turn people away for Flames of War tournaments at this point, since we're generally limited to 10 game tables for weekend events.
Don't wanna interfere with the regular Magic: the Gathering crowd- that's where the money comes from, apparently.

*Makes more money than all the mini games put together. Go figure*

I know I'm not alone in the 'disgruntled' category of veteran GW gamers. There's a lot of us out there. As for myself, I play other games now. Happily, too. It's not a secret that pretty much every game system out there features a tighter ruleset than 40k, is it? One look at the minis for Infinity, or a handful of other offerings, shows me that GW isn't the only company making top of the line figs, either. While it was difficult for me to take that initial step into another game system, I did, eventually.
So...what happened?

Did GW's seemingly bizarre company policies open a tiny gap in the marketplace? A gap that aggressive companies jumped into, and forced open, until now there's a veritable flood of competition?
Well....yeah, that's assuredly one aspect of it.
However, the time of companies like Privateer Press riding the wave of GW discontent to success has passed, I believe, and these games stand on their own merits now. A few years back, 'not being like GW' was enough to get you noticed. Many mini-games offerings were initially presented in this fashion.
'Look, we have well written, clearly presented rules!'
'We update regularly, with timely FAQ's available online!'
'We release new stuffs, all the time!'
'We actually listen to customer feedback!'
Three years ago, these things made gamers turn their heads a bit and go, 'wow, really?'
Nowadays, these things are standards with every mini-gaming company, it seems. Except GW.
Sigh.

*Plotting on the Dreadnaught two tables over*

Yes, it would be really easy to just say, 'Oh, well, Games Workshop has their heads in their own rectums, clearly, and their obvious disdain for their own customers, nonsensical company policies, and, yes- GREED is hurting them.'
One could easily point at their withdrawal of Tournament support, lack of communication with their fanbase, failure to utilize the Internet and yearly price increases as reasons for the both current success of their competitors and the current state of discontent with the company itself.
All of those things may be true, but there's more to it, I believe.

I like to think of this as 'evolution.'
Allow me to elaborate.

The reason I pointed out Dust Warfare in my last post as an immediate 'major player' on the min-gaming scene was due to the involvement of Andy Chambers. Yes, Fantasy Flight is producing the game, and that is pretty big in and of itself, but FF took it a step further, in my opinion, by pasting the man's name right on the cover of the core rulebook.

Andy is not alone in the 'I left GW and now work for the competition' department. Alessio Cavatore joined Mantic, and the first thing that marriage produced was two products designed to take a bite out of GW's pie- Kings of War and Warpath. Both of these games are virtual mirrors of GW's flagship products in many regards, and the models can be used as proxies in both Fantasy and 40k.

*Call them Vampire Counts-As skeletons, if you'd like*

Part of the evolution of any major game franchise is key figures leaving the nest, and going off on their own, I believe. While Alessio and Mantic went with the 'look at me, I'm NOT Games Workshop' approach, Fantasy Flight went and dropped a bomb with Dust Warfare. This is no timid test of the waters, this is an assault on the bastions, and Andy Chambers features prominently in the mix.


This is a pattern I've seen before, and quite honestly it usually ends badly for those involved.
Long ago I was a big ID software fanboi, and I watched in horror as founding members John Romero, American McGee and Tom Hall either left the company, or were forced out for whatever reason. None of these guys did anything particularly threatening to ID software after they left (Daikatana, anyone? No? Lolz!), but ID software proceeded to fade away.
Now completely eclipsed by the makers of games like Call of Duty, Battlefield, Halo and a host of others, the inventors of the genre (Wolfenstein, Doom and Quake) is no longer the trendsetter, no longer the dominant force in the First Person Shooter market. Their last game, Rage, didn't even include traditional competitive multiplayer, and they friggin' invented it!
It's crazy, but these things happen. It's just...evolution. I played ID games back in the day, but...times change, and now I play something else.
*shrug*
If you had asked me during ID's heyday whether or not I believed I'd be playing some other company's product in a few years, I would have laughed.
Laughed, I say.
I am laughing now, I suppose, but for the wrong reasons.

*I'm laughing because this was awful, and I knew it would be long before release*

I know this can happen in the realm of hobby, as well, because it's happening to Dungeons & Dragons.
The name D & D was virtually synonymous with 'Role Playing Game' once, but various missteps have seen the franchise slip.

The lovely, luminous Loquacious (I'm required to type her name as such- it's in her contract) was kind enough to provide a  D & D timeline for me:

"D&D used to be king of the mountain. Grand Poohbah. The game everyone knew and played, and the company everyone wanted to be like.
Financial woes hit TSR badly and they got bought out by Wizards of the Coast. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise for the company, giving it extra life and a chance to rebuild the brand.
Around 2000, Hasbro had bought WotC, and wanted to see if it could get more money out of it's 'flagship product,' so it called for a redesign (3rd Edition). This edition is when die hard fans started to notice real changes in how the game worked and was developed, and not always for the better.
Hasbro's involvement seemed to many as 'just for profit' and not for the customer base as rules concerns were ignored and a half-hearted attempt at a revision (3.5) was put out, with the expectation that with every new edition, the old ones were now obsolete and customers would just buy new rules rather than use errata.
When 4th edition was announced, many customers refused to part ways with their 3rd or 3.5 edition rules, and flocked to a compromise system put out by third party publisher, Paizo.
Many saw this turn of events as a twist of irony, as Paizo had been publishing WotC's Dragon magazine until it was shut down.
Paizo's Pathfinder, along with Open Gaming License products put out in the DIY scene have become a large part of the resurgence of RPGs among those that were tied to the 'big company' for so long."

*Behold, as my maker screws the pooch!*

As I've mentioned before, franchises rise and fall, no matter how big they are. Since I feel obligated to include my own opinion of the matter here, I'd have to say that I think Games Workshop, and their dominance of the mini-games industry, is on the decline.
Key staff members leaving is always a bad sign, and now they're leading the charge against their former employer.
GW's seemingly bizarre mismanagement of their franchises, and their disconnect with their long-time customers (among other transgressions) have given the competition a wonderful blueprint of what NOT to do, in truth.

So, what will 6th Edition 40k bring?
Again- Sigh.
Let's be clear here- 6th Edition went to the printers a long time ago, and has likely been a 'finished product,' more or less, for a year.
Ok, so...what do we know about it?
We're talking about a new version of the biggest thing in mini-games here, and we know that...Uh...We're pretty sure that...

-_-

Oh, crap. We're a month or so from release, and we know NOTHING.
If the '40k rumor mill' is some clever attempt at marketing, then GW has made a pretty grave error, methinks. Many of the rumors (random charge lengths, challenges) have been met with something bordering on outright scorn.

*Hold there, heretic. It might take me two turns to reach you*

Let's not get it twisted, however. At this point, while whatever GW is up to seems counter-productive, the game is still theirs to lose. Since we're all in the dark as to what 6th Edition will really be, anything could happen, right?
Wait and See Mode, activate....

In the third and final part of this series, I'll be putting my thoughts down on what I'd like to see 40k become in the next edition.
Wishlisting, commence....
:)

Until next time, folks- Exit with catchphrase!

-SinSynn